New Delhi: Earlier this month, a Lancet study said the Sars-Cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19 is airborne. “This is a debate which has been going on for more than six months, whether it is droplet or aerosol, and in my mind it is a mixture of both,” All India Institute of Medical Sciences director Dr Randeep Guleria has told in an interview.

And they are the ones which can stay in the air for a longer period of time, can travel for a longer distance and don’t drop down to the surfaces. “So you may have a person in an indoor environment that is more than two metres away from you, is coughing, and viruses stay in the environment, in the air, for a longer period. And if you cross that area, you may have a chance of getting the infection although you were always away from him by two metres.”

He said wearing a mask properly was also important. “So whenever you use a mask, make sure that it tightly fits around your nose and mouth so that air does not come in from the side of your nose or from the side of the cheek. Because, remember, you have to have air coming in from the filtering mechanism of the mask so that the virus cannot go into your nose and mouth.